The
first accordion was diatonic, for some time the piano accordion
ruled, but musical trends fade, by now we see: the vision of
the inventor of this instrument was right: it should be diatonic.

The
nice thing about the diatonic accordion is: it«s very easy to
play. The concept behind the setup of the rows on the right
hand side and the chords on the left hand is that you play by
ear and invent your own music.

In
a rural community no notes or teachers were available, so people
made up their own music on the accordion. The biggest mistake
is to start with playing existing songs, the idea of the layout
of the instrument is to start improvising simple folk dance
melodies.

The
instrument was built to accompany folk dances. Keep a rhythm
going on the four middle buttons on the left side and play any
note in any order on the middle row of the right side (except
the first button): The result - instant folk dance music. The
player can go on for hours and never repeat himself. This is
the forte of a diatonic instrument: no wrong notes! The notes
change ACCORDING to the direction of the bellow.

If you run out of melodies on the middle row, try the other
rows. On the push all notes are ok (except the first button),
on the pull avoid on the outer row button 5 and 9 and the first
button, on the inner row button 4 and 8 and the first button.

After
some time of playing your "fingers will get ears" and you«ll
know intuitive where you have to go for a distinct note. If
you have reached this point, you can play other people«s songs,
use tabulature, but never before you reach this stadium, because
you would be playing against the nature of the instrument.

If
you watch Pacho Rada in the film "El acordeon del diablo", you
will see, what I was talking about.

The
nice thing about the three row accordion is that there is no
logic - what a relief!

The
search for something logical led to the chromatic accordion
- and that in turn led to the detoriation of the whole accordion
world - is there anything as corny as typical chromatic accordion
music? As a child I went to a Hohner Harmonika school and I
was so happy that I took guitar lessons, because I hated the
sound that came out of the accordion rooms.

The
three row just grew historically.

The
first accordions had one row, like Cajun accordions. Because
most of the old dance tunes like Viva Seguin move for
the second part to another key, a second row was added. You
played these in the same way as a one row, to modulate you changed
the row.

To
be able to move to yet another key, a third row was added. When
the third row was added, something magical happened: You had
the convenient diatonic note layout, but suddenly you had nearly
all notes on the push and pull.

A
quantum leap.

So the three row accordion was the missing link between diatonic
and chromatic instruments.

But
in Europe where these instruments were built, nobody realized
that they had hit the nail on the head.

Simple and sophisticated at the same time: the ideal type of
an accordion.

We
have to thank the Spanish speaking players for finding the full
potential of this instrument that is so illogical yet so musical.

(You
can«t play in any key on a three row but you have to remember
that on so called chromatic instruments people don«t play in
all keys, for example saxophone players play mostly in F Bb
Eb, guitar players know that saxophone players hate their comfort
zones of A and E.)

Each animal has to be treated differently, so don«t make the
mistake and treat the three row as a chromatic instrument, because
it won«t behave.

The
three row needs some squeeze box whispering and it will join
up!

When
you see and hear accordion whisperer Steve Jordan play you«ll
know that it will follow right down to hell - back and forth.

itÔs pretty easy:

Each row represents a scale. the first, third
and fifth note of each scale are on the push, the second, fourth,
sixth and seventh on the pull.

On the push: the notes are layed out that they
play "Bonanza" Start on the second button of the inner row,
the second on the middle row, the fourth on the outer row and
follow through.

ThatÔs the way: Take a simple melody and find
it on the keyboard. Next take MozartÔs night music, which starts
on the same notes as Bonanza. These are chord melodies.

For a scalar melody try BeethovenÔs "Ode to joy"
On the middle row it starts on the fourth button. But it really
hinders you if you know which note youÔre playing.

A diatonic accordion is the easiest instrument
in the world to play (maybe with the exception of the autoharp)
that it should be played intuitively.

This is one of those stories destined to not only change the
life of one man, but also of one town, one country. What happened
in 1863 seems to be a legend, but was in fact a reality, important
enough to start an industry that would become famous all over
the world: the accordion industry.

An
Austrian pilgrim returning home from a visit to the Loreto sanctuary
asked for hospitality for the night at a farmhouse near Castelfidardo.
After having been refreshed, he sat down near the fireside and
started to play a strange "box". This was the house
of Antonio and Lucia Soprani and their sons. One son, Paolo,
was interested in this musical box which was in fact a copy
of the "accordeon" patented in 1829 by Mr. Demian
of Vienna. Many different stories tell of how Paolo obtained
this box: some say that the prilgrim gifted to him to thank
the family for the hospitality; some say that Paolo bought it;
some say that during the night, the young Paolo woke up to study
all the secrets of the box.

The
important thing is that, from this little boxand PaoloÕs intelligence,
after a few years the accordion industry would be born in Castelfidardo.
In 1864 Paolo opened a little workshop inside his home, with
the help of his brothers; after some years, he moved to a bigger
house, engaging some workers. The first "armoniche"
produced were sold in fairs and markets of nearby towns. In
Loreto there were always a lot of pilgrims, religious visitors
and dealers. Paolo went there to exhibit his accordion and he
also became a good player. In 1872 he moved to the centre of
Castelfidardo and opened a factory in the Piazza Garibaldi.

His instruments had immediate success, especially in the country
where the farmers danced to popular songs. Quickly the popularity
grew and requests came from other european countries like France.
At the end of the 19th century the "armonica" started
to be exported to other continents, for example the USA, where
a lot of Italian people had emigrated and the sound of the "armonica"
eased their homesickness. To supply the increasing number of
orders he needed to find a bigger place and more workers, to
organise the phases of production in a better way and create
a commercial office. For this reason Paolo with his sons Luigi
and Achille opened a new factory in Castelfidardo where about
400 people worked.

In
1900 the company had a big success in a fair in Paris; Paolo
became a member of the academy of inventors of Bruxelles and
Paris and met the President of France. He continued to work
in his factory until he was 70 years old, when his two sons
took over. He died in his house on 20th February 1918, when
he was 73 years old.